Thursday, February 10, 2011

Alleged teen hitman "El Ponchis" charged with murder in Mexico

BY MORGAN LEE, UNION-TRIBUNE

A San Diego-born boy accused of working as a hitman for a drug cartel in central Mexico was formally charged on Wednesday in the killings of four men whose headless bodies were found in August dangling from a highway bridge, prosecutors announced.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo, 14, will be tried in juvenile court for homicide, participation in organized crime, drug possession and carrying a firearm reserved for the exclusive use of Mexico’s armed forces.

The thin, curly haired boy and a 19-year-old sister were arrested Dec. 2 as they prepared to board a flight from Cuernavaca to Tijuana and eventually reach their mother’s home in San Diego. A second sister was arrested after driving them to the airport.

As a 14-year-old, Edgar faces a maximum sentence of three years in juvenile detention, where he would receive psychological counseling and resume an education that ended in the second grade, juvenile court Judge Armando Prieto said.

Last fall, Mexico’s army began searching for a boy assassin nicknamed “El Ponchis” who appeared in Internet videos of gun-waving youths and scenes of torture. Thrust before reporters and cameras after his arrest, Edgar confessed to beheading four people while high on marijuana and being threatened with harm if he refused. It is unclear whether that confession will be admissible in court.

Edgar’s father, David Antonio Jimenez Solis, cast doubt on the charges against his son, saying the public confession with soldiers at his side was made virtually at gunpoint.

“They grabbed him in a rush to judgment,” said Jimenez Solis on Wednesday from Tejalpa, a working-class neighborhood where Edgar spent most of his youth. “It’s more likely he has nothing to do with this.”

Jimenez Solis, who works at a chicken processing business, said he has not been in direct contact with his son or his public defense attorney since the arrest. But he believes his son is incapable of the crimes in question.

“The soldiers put a gun to his head,” he said.

The organized crime charge against the boy stems from a kidnapping for ransom. The homicide victims, ranging in age from 20 to 24, are believed to have been targeted in a fierce drug-gang turf war in the central Mexican tourist destination of Cuernavaca.

Prosecutors will seek 3.5 million pesos, or nearly $300,000, in reparations for the kidnapping victim and relatives of the homicide victims, said Efrain Vega Giles, a spokesman for the Morelos state attorney general’s office.

Edgar’s arrest in December was a shocking example of how juveniles are increasingly being used by Mexico’s drug-trafficking gangs. Mexican authorities say more than 15,000 people were killed last year in the country’s surging drug-related violence.

Troops in Cuernavaca continue to search for members of the South Pacific Cartel and its local enforcer, Jesus Radilla Hernandez, whose alias is “El Negro.” Radilla, believed to be in his mid-30s, does not appear among major drug traffickers on the Mexican attorney general’s most wanted list of crime suspects.

The Mexican army has accused Radilla of recruiting young gang members, including Edgar, to wage a gruesome battle for control of the Cuernavaca area after the December 2009 killing of drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva.

The head of the Morelos state public defenders office for juveniles, Anel Pineda, declined to comment Wednesday on the charges against Edgar, saying her office is prohibited from discussing unresolved cases under laws designed to safeguard minors.

Immediate family members of juvenile defendants are allowed access to defense attorneys and court documents and proceedings, she said. Members of Edgar’s family said they’ve had no contact with the boy’s defense attorney, in part because they fear they could be detained for questioning if they visited him or contacted authorities.

In late October, Edgar’s cousin David Jose Mario Jimenez Solis, 20, was arrested on drug and weapons charges and is being held for trial without bail.

The cousin said from prison that he was arrested by soldiers who burst into his home and confirmed his relation to Edgar. The army maintains that the cousin was apprehended at a gang hideaway stocked with guns and drugs.

Edgar’s sisters Elizabeth Jimenez Lugo, 19, and Lina-Ericka Jimenez Lugo, 22, have been detained in Mexico City pending a federal investigation into allegations they were carrying drugs and weapons and for possible ties to organized crime. Last week, the detentions were extended an additional 40 days.

While Edgar awaits his fate in Mexico, his mother has legal dealings of her own in the United States. Yolanda Jimenez Lugo, 43, and her current husband, were detained by U.S. Border Patrol officials outside their Logan Heights apartment four days after Edgar’s capture.

Jimenez is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last month to illegally re-entering the United States after previously being deported. She faces up to two years in prison because of a 1997 drug conviction in San Diego. Her husband, Gabriel Aguirre Manuel, 46, pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering the country and was sentenced to 60 days. He was expected to be deported after serving his sentence. Jimenez and Aguirre have two U.S.-born children, who are in the care of a San Diego relative.

The soldiers put a gun to his head, says the father. Can you believe this ignorant liberal dad? Aw come on, Daddy!??? Mexico is a US supported democracy and I'm sure that it's all legit how they tried the 14 year old in the public press and gave him an official tag, 'El Ponchis'.

Now let's send him to Guantanamo where all the wigged US legal jurists can ensure a fair kangaroo trial for the tot! This dad must be insane, don't you think, all my fellow Borderland Beat rabble? After all, the kid is a second grade graduate and was caught red handed 'carrying a firearm reserved for the exclusive use of Mexico’s armed forces'. (I love that last charge!) I'm sure he's guilty! .....all ready. Plus both parents are evil 'illegal aliens' from Outer Space!

Geez Ernest...maybe you should go ahead and adopt the kid and turn him around... I mean...really its all the U.S. fault...always and forever, no matter what, where, when, or who...the guilt still lies with the U.S. right Ernest?

Give it up man...go check out how awesomely benevolent the Chinese are...or anyone else for that matter.

The whole issue is that the US and Mexico are trying this kid in the press and you bobos automatically buy it all... ALL. The only thing it takes for many Americans is for their government to label people bad in some way or the other and the undereducated rabble are out to lynch whoever it is without knowing squat about any of the actual facts at all. They just accept automatically the word of the policing and military 'authorities'.

Unfortunately this is a tendency in Mexico for people there also to ignorantly and automatically accept these staged publicity appearances as God given facts, too.

And to my mentioning any of this, the rabble wishes me today sent to China this time. It's usually to North Korea or Cuba, so I'm kinda surprised by this new destination they have for me when I don't get out my pom poms and cheer...USA! Of course, you guys have total faith in the Mexican government in its 'war', too. Los dos Estados unidos unidos in being ready to hang whoever, whenever, and however their governments might order it. Your faith in The State (whereever it may be?) is touching, Anonymoes.

So the gun the little fuck had belonged to the Mexican Armed Forces? It wasn't smuggled in from Texas or Arizona. Within the past year I seem to recall several burglaries of Mexican govt arsenals/armories where quite a number of guns, grenades, etc. were stolen. I don't think any munitions are manufactured in Mexico so just because it says Made in USA on a weapon doesn't mean it was smuggled from the US.

Somebody should do him a favor. He's like a poor, sick animal in such agony he will likely hurt someone.

Using violence to solve violence solves nothing.How can you call this kid a monster for his actions then scream for him to be subjected to the same treatment? For a 14 year old to be raped? That's just barbaric, backwards, ignorant thinking. Who knows if he is guilty or not? Maybe the military is paying (or torturing) him to confess to crimes he didn't commit. They definitely aren't above doing that. They needed a "posterboy" for the fucked up ni-ni generation. Maybe that's exactly what they created for the media. The Mexican Judicial system is seriously flawed and corrupt. You all know that, yet you blindly accept this kid's guilt and cry for him to be ripped apart in the streets.

790 said..."Am I the only one that thinks this kids looks nothing like the real "el ponchis" did in his photos and video? This looks like a completely different kid/person."

This has been discussed alot here.The videos you are referring to were of another young man (named el Cris if i remember correctly) who was being interrogated about Ponchis. The Ponchis kid didn't appear in the media until his arrest.

@ ''lito'brito......At least convict him first, for fuck's sake. I'm all for severe punishment if he's found guilty. Everyone complains that killers are set free because of corruption. It's gotta be a 2 way street. People are wrongly accused and convicted all the time. You guys are letting the press and your own emotions act as judge and jury.

@ 'lito'brito .... sure he confessed. But to what ends? Was he beaten? Was he drugged up and told what to say? They're holding his sisters also.... are they being threatened and used as leverage? What kinds of things might you confess to if the Mexican Military or Federales were holding your sisters or your mother? Could he be just a 14 year old talking out of his ass trying to look tough in front of his narco buddies? We don't know what's going on, so to automatically assume he's guilty just because he was "captured" and "confessed" is ludicrous.People confess to things they didn't do all the time out of fear, ignorance, feelings of self importance, torture, mental problems.... there are a million reasons. If he did it, yes, he absolutely deserves whatever comes his way. If he didn't then he's being persecuted for the actions of others.

@ 790... sorry i just re-read my comment to you and my tone sounded rather harsh. I apologize.That interrogation video and some other youtube vids mentioning a ruthless 14 year old siccario named Ponchis is what kicked off the search for him.

Ernesto1 you are an idiot liberal! Perhaps they will let him out one day and maybe then you will be his next victim or perhaps one of your family members. Then we will see how compassionate you are towards this scumbag.

Ernest1 is in trouble with another Anonymoe because he has not leapt to the conclusion that Mexican military photo boy is automatically guilty when shown to the international public by face covered Mexican uniformed thugs.... uh I meant US trained Mexican soldiers.

'If "Ernesto1" refuses, why should someone else want him free do do it?'

No, Anonymous, I think he should have a trial before you guys organize the Anglo lynch mob to go get him. Go figure now?

'El Regio', I don't for a minute even believe you are living in Monterrey at all. You want to give me a hard time about my opinions, too, in regard to this 14 year old being held by masked Mexican soldiers? You, a probable US citizen who knows only how to give us a link to Monterrey.com tourism site and how to label yourself 'el regio' instead of the USA guy you most probably really are? You make me laugh, Dude.

It so happens that you and the other Anonymous US turkey lecturing me happened to be read by myself just about the same time that I'm listening to relatives talk on the phone to my wife about their trip out of the war zone to the 'Our' Side and their story of how one other Mexican relative was hauled away in a pickup by some cartel thug and why that happened? He's gone now. Another victim of US 'drug wars' and US politician 'drug war' whores.

I get these stories late because it is too dangerous to be talking out of where my relatives live since tele conversations can be overheard and misinterpreted. We tell them to hold the news talk until out of the house where they live and into safer areas.

What is so sick about this, is that I and the people I love cannot go any more into this family hometown as my wife's relatives have done all their lives before feeling totally safe and where they all grew up in a different era. They'll all never ever be able to feel relaxed and at home in their place of birth because of this stupid drug war stuff. One other relative has already had to close down his business of multiple decades, because it's just too dangerous to be in the public light like that. All their lives are increasingly getting screwed up.

But you empty headed US bozos just keep preaching out against me all you want as being some supposed know nothing 'idiot liberal' as you put it, Mr. Idiot US Far Right Conservative 'Regio Not'. You don't have a clue about how damn clueless you all are. But that's simply par for the course for most of you Right Wing US milk duds and I don't hold anything personal about how stupid you really appear when you try to talk down to others. You got no education, that's all.

I let my family and kid tour down to Monterrey last summer and it was a risk. They stayed out of other spots though. Once again summer is soon coming up and I have to assess the risks once again for us once again.

I'm almost retirement age and all of Latin America has been turned by the US government into on again off again war zone. Can't even spend a few quiet years in what was once more civilized terrain. And you conservative clowns clap and cheer about it, because you're so damn stupid.

However, these are real lives, real people, and real countries you USA rah rah rah dummies are screwing up by being so damn brain dead. I feel sorry for you though. You're just ignorant zombies as far as I can see, wandering around stone cold and dead in the head.

Go ahead, get your US lynch mobs out for the 14 year older. He may be guilty even, though to trust any of the System as you stoops do totally is completely fucked up. What's wrong with you dumb American eager turkeys? ...NOT EAGLES Just ask yourself that for once... What the fuck is wrong with you Dead Heads? You come onto this blog to get yourselves off at the dismembered bodies shown here, and not for much else. What's wrong with you?

OK... that's about the end of my rant. You're a waste of time mostly. I know... because I grew up with you turkeys in Anglo Land in Texas.... The Land of big Stupid Country Fried Steaks and pawn shops, these days. Many of you simply got too fried in the endless summer hot sun.

@ LB .... I honestly don't know if that's him in the video. I do agree that it's rumored, even accepted by most to be him. I'm not a video expert and I wouldn't attempt to positively identify someone from a few seconds of low quality images. Even if I could ID him from the video, it in no way shows that he is guilty of murder, let alone 4 beheadings. Would it make him appear guilty of assault, kidnapping, conspiracy, and/or generally being a piece of shit? Absolutely. I stand by my original statement.... If he is convicted with definitive proof, I don't care what you do to him. He deserves a very harsh sentence if he is genuinely guilty. I'm just not going for this trial and conviction by the press B.S. If he didn't do it, then a real murderer is walking free.

@cccc"I'm just not going for this trial and conviction by the press B.S."

Then don't and quit your bitching for god sake. If you knew more about the story you would know that his friends that were captured in the initial raid by the military threw him under the bus... so they gave him up...but seriously like LB said "why don't some of you petition Mexico to adopt him...or maybe fix him up with your daughter.." but quit your bickering already.

@Anonymous 7:53PM .... Yeah, sorry, i don't hold much stock in his young friends "confessions" obtained at the hands of the military.If you don't like my bitching (or is it bickering? you say both...)feel free to skip over my comments. You don't have to read them.

This kids mother has been arrested for drug possesion and he only has a second grade education. Put yourself in his shoes for a bit and try to imagine the type of life he has had. Obviously been neglected alot and taught no morals. Its all about survival and a twenty dollar american bill is alot of money to a young mexican kid let alone 3000 dollars. Its like putting a mentally retarded person on trial in the U.S. They dont understand what they did wrong. In ponchis mind its either do what you are told or you die no questions asked. His parents probably had the same type of upbringing if not worse. The blame for the kids actions can go to the parents and the mexican government who let everything get out of hand over there. All he can think of is how to live another day. Its tough.

wasn't he born in san diego...that makes him a us citizen...so he was elgible for social services in california...so he had choices and opportunitys that millions of mexican kids dont have...and he chose the wrong way

By all accounts grandmother & child were close and she provided a loving caring home...until she died when he was 9. he was left in his own care and that of his sisters themselves children. Stop going to school and became an outcast of society, until Negro gave him a "job" and "family"

He would go to San Diego once a year to visit his mother...dear mom would not allow him to sleep in the home. He slept in the streets with the homeless, and became friends with a few.

the parents are both low life of the lowest, they should be taken into a field and shot.

any-mouse 12:13PM I understand where you are coming from, and I want this kid-killer to serve justice but in Mx that means until he is 18 then out.

we must talk about these cases, these children are called Ni-Nis in Mx and there are millions. if circumstances do not change for these kids and education/employment not a possibilty for these children, then take a good look at Ponchis..he represents the choice many children will make.

hmmm..didn't know about the rights thing...that is too bad , he could have been extradited to the US...i know he had a hard time ..but to excuse him ..is to invalidate the hard time so many other kids have ...

Brito...never have I said he should be excused, given a pass. I am outraged that he will be out in 3 yrs unless his pals spring him which happens all the time in juvey. and for the record he cannot be redeemed.

I am just saying we must examine these kids because there are many and Ponchis had a horrific life from day one...no excuses...just the truth.

How can you people talk like this? Apparantely all of you live in the US. You al who do should be grateful. Mexico is horrible and they will force you to do many things you dont want to. You have no other choice but to listen to them. I went as a tourist i got surrounded by guys and guns they through me out my car with my brother. they questioned us and screamed at us. You feel lost once your in front of them. You are in their hands and theres nothing u can do. They let us go after forcing us to take out 12,000 from an ATM machine. THEY had the key to the machine but the cameras showed me and my brother therfore they would never get in trouble. You people really need to be face to face with one of these drug cartels person so that you can feel the pressure.